Rich, I noticed on an old Audio Circle thread you had the Belden 8402 interconnects. Have you tried them with your Kefs? I'm thinking about whipping up a few pairs to compare with the Homegrown audio silver ICs I use now. I also just bought a Schiit Loki mini, to use as an inline loudness control, so need another short IC.
Official Kef LS50 owners thread
- Thread starter canuckaudiog
- Start date
Rich, I noticed on an old Audio Circle thread you had the Belden 8402 interconnects. Have you tried them with your Kefs? I'm thinking about whipping up a few pairs to compare with the Homegrown audio silver ICs I use now. I also just bought a Schiit Loki mini, to use as an inline loudness control, so need another short IC.
rhing
Active Member
The Homegrown Audio Silver interconnects are very, very nice. In fact, I made several pairs of similar tri-braided Silver interconnect cables with 0.5mm Silver-Gold solid core wire and 22AWG PTFE Teflon lightweight wall tubing.
I loved them until I tried the Belden 8402 interconnect recipe from Jeff Day's "Jeff's Place" blog. I systematically replaced all my Mundorf Silver-Gold interconnects with the Belden 8402 cables. Now I have a mix of Duelund DCA20GA interconnects and Belden 8402 interconnects. With my current cables, I have a tone rich sound with improved midrange detail.
Good to hear, I ordered the parts today (from btpa /markertek), also will follow the recipe from that blog. Plan is to replace all three cable sets from DAC to Loki mini to iTube to preamp with the 8402s, and let them settle in. If I feel the detail is lost too much, could always throw back in one of the silver sets.
I'm back in the LS50 club. I had black/copper pair a year or so ago...sold them to try Quad 57's. I did love the Quads but now I'm just downsizing everything (by choice) so back to LS50's, this time a white/blue pair. I still have my KEF 107's but I'm going to see if I can live with the LS50's and if so, I suppose will get rid of the 107's...but there will be a brief shoot-out!
I was thinking of you, actually, for the "2nd time LS50 owners" club...I know I'll enjoy the LS50's but it's gotta be those or the 107's and the 107's are sure hard to let go of!!! But, I'm going to try my hardest to be objective and base this on pure sound quality, not any sort of attachment. I think the LS50's will hold their own with music but I'm worried about home theater a little bit, as the speakers I keep have to do both very well. I do have a 12" subwoofer and 8" subwoofer that I'll be running with both sets of speakers as I A-B them so maybe the bass difference will be more negligible than I think it will, with the subs evening it out. Time will tell.
Raynald
Addicted Member
Keep me posted. If I were to downsize to something new the LS50 would be top of the list. Black Friday special had them around $700 US! Very tempting but no need for now. The nice thing about the 107 is the footprint is not really bigger than a small speaker on a stand and the KUBE allows you to place them close to walls which can make them less cumbersome than small speakers. But they are big, the KUBE makes connections a bit more complex and they do require upkeep (donuts, surrounds, ferrofluid). Of course if I really wanted to downsize and simplify, the active version would be perfect.
As I said, keep me posted...
As I said, keep me posted...
prighello
not all who wander are lost
I recently added a sub to the mix with a proper crossover using a B&K PT3 preamp. I have the LS50s high passed at 80hz mated to an old velodyne sub I had in storage. Very happy with the results. Relieving the LS50s of bass duty really cleaned them up. Not that they weren't great before but clarity just went up a notch in my opinion. Forgot what I was missing on the low end as well til the sub was added. Finally sated...for now 
Dang, I missed THAT Black Friday sale!!! I just bought a used pair for $870 shipped and I thought I was doing good there! Cheapest I have ever seen them new (yet, personally) is $999.
Agreed on the footprint of the 107's. If I get the LS50's they will need to sit on a credenza...it's a complicated story, re-arranging...
I just sold my 125 wpc Emotiva amp and am now running the 107's off of a Peachtree integrated with only 40 wpc and no KUBE in use. If I keep the 107's, they will need to be run this way for awhile...eventually getting a nice, big power amp and putting the KUBE back in place.
I think the LS50's will likely perform closer to their capabilities with the 40 watts than the 107's will.
Maybe I'll find a way to keep them both!!! That's kind of my secret "hope"...just need to find some other things to sell to recoup the cash.
I recently added a sub to the mix with a proper crossover using a B&K PT3 preamp. I have the LS50s high passed at 80hz mated to an old velodyne sub I had in storage. Very happy with the results. Relieving the LS50s of bass duty really cleaned them up. Not that they weren't great before but clarity just went up a notch in my opinion. Forgot what I was missing on the low end as well til the sub was added. Finally sated...for now
Unfortunately my integrated amp doesn't have this capability so no way to do that for now, but I'll keep that in mind going forward!
Raynald
Addicted Member
$999 Canadian, plus tax of course, was the best I saw but that was a local place, probably no US shipping.
Agreed, the LS50 will be running closer to their potential on your current amp.
chrisr2020
Member
I have just joined the LS50 cult.
I have them hooked up to a Marantz 8400 integrated with kimber 4pr, and I play CDs and SACDs on a Yamaha BD-S677 (BJ LC-1 interconnects). Plus a svs sb-1000 sub crossed over at 50Hz.
They are fantastic! I have had numerous small and tall speakers, including Martin Logans and Magnepan, but these are probably the ones that have let me in the recording the most. Superb imaging left to right, great amount of detail, fast...
I have not found a fault yet, beside a nasty bump in the mid-bass. I tamed it by taking out the 10awg belden and reconnecting them with the smaller gauge kimber 4pr (14awg), to offer more resistance relative to the 3-4ohms drop in the ls50s bass. The problem is resolved, not sure if it is as a result of cable swap or sudden ear wax buildup.
They have about 30 hours of low to moderate play time; Today, I am playing them louder, and I notice that the Marantz gets a little warmer than with other speakers I have, not super efficient and rated 6ohms.... I have doubts that the LS50s are 8ohms nominal.
I have them hooked up to a Marantz 8400 integrated with kimber 4pr, and I play CDs and SACDs on a Yamaha BD-S677 (BJ LC-1 interconnects). Plus a svs sb-1000 sub crossed over at 50Hz.
They are fantastic! I have had numerous small and tall speakers, including Martin Logans and Magnepan, but these are probably the ones that have let me in the recording the most. Superb imaging left to right, great amount of detail, fast...
I have not found a fault yet, beside a nasty bump in the mid-bass. I tamed it by taking out the 10awg belden and reconnecting them with the smaller gauge kimber 4pr (14awg), to offer more resistance relative to the 3-4ohms drop in the ls50s bass. The problem is resolved, not sure if it is as a result of cable swap or sudden ear wax buildup.
They have about 30 hours of low to moderate play time; Today, I am playing them louder, and I notice that the Marantz gets a little warmer than with other speakers I have, not super efficient and rated 6ohms.... I have doubts that the LS50s are 8ohms nominal.
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They might just still be breaking in.
Also 10%(additional 5%) back if you use a Amazon Prime credit card.Just noticed these dropped to $999 on Amazon, sooooo tempting....
That's how I bought mine, but went for the free financing instead. Speakers were broken in before the first payment was due.
There is a recent thread over at AA regarding how manufacturers screw their dealers, and the KEF LS50 on line sale was linked. Neither here nor there as far as I'm concerned, but what I found interesting is a couple of posters were wondering if KEF was about to introduce a newer updated version of the passive model, next year. That would make sense of the present major markdown sale.
jazzmans
Super Member
So, I boxed up my LS-50's a couple years ago, solely due to the fact I had a plethora of amazing loudspeakers for every room, and didn't see the use of using these anywhere less then optimal, when I'd others that'd do as well... so I figured I'd keep them protected until such time as I had a room/use that was worth using them.
well, my slowly but constantly evolving main rig has gotten me to the place where I've a pair of Maggie true ribbon speakers, (2.5rs) to use in my largest and best acoustically room as mains.
The main system is a bryston pre to Carver pro amps(450 wpc@4), utilizing a pair of subs (JL audio fathom and M&K 12" push/pull) and this is what I watch films on, and listen to music on, with the secondary system (lepai 7496 100 wpc@4 chipamp, with chromecast audio for signal, as well as a bluetooth connection for ..) for when I want to Split screen my media, and watch tv and listen to music simultaniously (yes, I know, it's weird, but I do it a LOT)
Having finally gotten my main system to the resolution I'm happy with, I removed all the other 'Big' Speakers from my living room, and was using a pair of M&K S100 monitors for dual listening, especially when I use the maggies for the music audio, and the S100s for movie/tv audio.
I quickly discovered a couple of things.
1. the maggie 2.5rs are far, Far more capable speakers then I'd given them credit for, especially with regards to bass, with the main system, It took time to synch the subs down (always down) to match the maggies, so I never really listened to them without any augmentation. (I could go on about this for paragraphs, but see my thread in speakers about them for more)
2. The M&K S100, as amazing tonaly as they are, sounding very very similar in the mids/highs to the maggies, but having almost no mid/low bass on their own, which only became apparent when I'd flipped and had the M&K's pulling music duty, with the maggies pulling move/tv duty. There was an obvious lack of midbass and dearth of any bass
Due to this, I decided to pull out the KEF's again, having boxed them a couple years ago as I said, I took them off the shelf, and set them up under the screen, next to the M&K's as shown below.
They sounded very VERY similar to the M&K, and tonally speaking, played very nicely with the maggies. After switching back and forth, depending on which source I am listening to the most at the moment, It's easy to forget which speaker is driving what signal, (which is my point.)
Simply put,
The KEF LS-50 does so very much of what my very best speakers do, that it's almost transparant which speaker is feeding my ears the signal. I often, at db levels less then bombastic (85db and up) I can't tell which speaker is playing, my mighty huge magnepan 2.5 or the tiny KEF LS-50.
This is remarkable, That this small 'monitor' speaker, molded acoustically after the classic L50 speaker, can do so very very much of the entire signal they reproduce accurately, and the very bottom bits, where it only fails in the sense of the 'visceral' impact, still, to my ears, perfectly reproducing the sound, and tone of a bass guitar, or a kettle drum, or even the human male baritone voice...
now, at db levels much above the posted, the maggies just stop getting louder, and the KEF's start to get a bit 'shouty', but damn! these are amazing little speakers. When I sit the the perfect spot for the LS-50s nearfield, with the center of the tangerine tweeter exactly at ear level, they create an amazing headphone like immersion in the music, if I sit right about where the brown and the tan meet.
I'll continue to update as I continue to listen to these marvelous little speakers, and wonder why I ever removed them from rotation, as great as they are when used 'properly'
canuckaudiog
On a quest for high fidelity
Looks like I'll be joining the "second owner" club! After nearly 3 and a half years, I have purchased a new pair of LS50s. A local retailer had them on sale for $999 CAD (plus GST) and I knew it was time to pounce.
After selling my first pair I've regretted it. I only did so because the small room I was in had really poor acoustics, but I am now in a larger room with much better acoustics so it is time to revisit these.
I can't wait. I also purchased the KEF stands for them, the GFS-124. They're on order so I don't have them yet, but I expect to get them next week.
@Hawkeye83 You might recall that I went the direction from 107s to LS50s. If you take the bass out of the equation, I found the LS50s to be better. When I sold the 107s, I didn't look back and never missed them. The 107s are very good of course, but 30 years of technological advances do make a difference within the same company. I think you might find the same unless there are specific parts of the 107 sound that you really like. Myself, I preferred the character of the LS50.
After selling my first pair I've regretted it. I only did so because the small room I was in had really poor acoustics, but I am now in a larger room with much better acoustics so it is time to revisit these.
I can't wait. I also purchased the KEF stands for them, the GFS-124. They're on order so I don't have them yet, but I expect to get them next week.
@Hawkeye83 You might recall that I went the direction from 107s to LS50s. If you take the bass out of the equation, I found the LS50s to be better. When I sold the 107s, I didn't look back and never missed them. The 107s are very good of course, but 30 years of technological advances do make a difference within the same company. I think you might find the same unless there are specific parts of the 107 sound that you really like. Myself, I preferred the character of the LS50.
canuckaudiog
On a quest for high fidelity
KEF LS50s are home and set-up. Unfortunately I am not able to tune my subs with the LS50s because my wife is asleep, but this weekend I'm going to spend some time measuring the in-room response and recalibrating the subs.
But, of course I just couldn't help myself and I'm listening to them without the subs. Though they are significantly missing bass (my room has a problem between 40-60Hz at the listening spot), ah.. that clarity. I really missed it. It feels great to have these back. I'm going to reread my first account of these and compare notes, to see if in my new listening space they live up to my previous recollections.
But, of course I just couldn't help myself and I'm listening to them without the subs. Though they are significantly missing bass (my room has a problem between 40-60Hz at the listening spot), ah.. that clarity. I really missed it. It feels great to have these back. I'm going to reread my first account of these and compare notes, to see if in my new listening space they live up to my previous recollections.
